Legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar dies at 92

NEW DELHI, Dec. 12 — Legendary Indian sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who gained widespread international acclaim due to his association with The Beatles, passed away at a hospital in San Diego in the U.S. state of California Wednesday (India time) .

He was 92 and is survived by his wife Sukanya and musician daughters, sitar player Anushka Shankar and singer Norah Jones, three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.

“It is with heavy hearts we write to inform you that Pandit Ravi Shankar, husband, father, and musical soul, passed away today, ” his wife Sukanya and daughter Anushka said in a joint statement.

The music doyen, whose health has been fragile for the past several years, was last week admitted to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where he underwent heart valve replacement surgery. But he failed to recover fully from the operation, his family said.

“Although it is a time for sorrow and sadness, it is also a time for all of us to give thanks and to be grateful that we were able to have him as a part of our lives. He will live forever in our hearts and in his music,” the family statement said.

Shankar, once described as “the godfather of world music” by rock artiste George Harrison of The Beatles, was born in the northern Indian holy town of Varanasi on April 7, 1920, and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar.

He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the United States playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching and performance. The music icon, who lived between India and the United States, performed in the 2000s with his daughter Anuksha.

Shankar was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards.